NEW DELHI, Aug 29: Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah had useful and positive talks on Monday with Indian officials including Home Minister Shivraj Patil and said a peaceful and secure India was in Islamabad’s interest.
“The talks have been very, very useful and positive,” Mr Shah said after his call on the Indian home minister during a break from the two-day talks he started with his Indian counterpart V.K. Duggal on Monday.
“If India is peaceful and India is secure, we feel Pakistan will be peaceful. If Pakistan is peaceful, India should feel that it would be peaceful. So, we have to work for this objective and we feel we are in the right direction,” Mr Shah said.
The bilateral talks on drugs and terrorism are being held as part of the confidence building measures mandated by the two countries.
Indian officials said they had exchanged lists of terrorists and criminals wanted in each other’s country as well as the ordinary prisoners who are languishing in jails on the other side.
Indian officials said their list of nearly 30 fugitives included Indian underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel and Jaish-i-Mohammed Chief Maulana Masood Azhar. Some reports said the Pakistani side handed over names of what it called were persons wanted in that country and living in India.
The talks are being held in the light of the April joint declaration by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
Of his meeting with Mr Patil, Mr Shah said he assured the minister that Pakistan was keen to make further progress in bilateral ties with India and that “the joint statement should be an improvement on the one issued after the Islamabad round last year”.
“I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that we will make very good headway which will be in the interest of peoples of India and Pakistan,” Mr Shah said.
According to Mr Shah the issue of hundreds of prisoners from both countries being held in each other’s jails tops the agenda of the two-day talks. Most of the prisoners are fishermen and civilians who strayed across borders, or people held for violating visa regulations.
“As far as we are concerned we feel that people of both countries are concerned about these prisoners,” he said. “The sooner they go home the better. So we have come with a very positive mind, very open mind.”
Officials are also reviewing steps taken to combat terrorism and drug trafficking. India wants Pakistan to widen cooperation on ending terrorism and to dismantle camps in Pakistani territory that New Delhi says are used to train groups fighting in Kashmir. Islamabad denies such camps exist.
